Instructions for Honors College Application Essay

Topics for students entering ACU in Fall 2010 or Spring 2011:

• Bill Gates wrote, "I'm a great believer that any tool that enhances communication has profound effects in terms of how people can learn from each other, and how they can achieve the kind of freedoms that they're interested in." In view of how terrorists use cell phones and the Internet, how people wreck cars while text-messaging, and so forth, is Gates's statement valid? Why or why not? Give evidence.
• Frederick Douglass wrote, “No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.” Discuss why you agree or disagree, using at least one detailed example from history or current events.
• Margaret Thatcher wrote, "To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects." Discuss why you agree or disagree.
• Jean Bethke Elshtain wrote, “Small wonder [that modern people] have become so fascinated with end-things, with death and violence and experiences on the edge: they alone promise to deliver much needed relief from the self circling endlessly round itself.” This is the fix we get into, she says, by refusing to believe in transcendence and authority. Discuss why you agree or disagree with her, using at least one detailed example from entertainment media (films, video games, television, etc.).
   

Instructions

• Write a response to any ONE of the quotations under “Essay Topics” below.

• Your essay should be 500-750 words (equivalent to 2 to 3 double-spaced pages). Run longer if you like, but 2-3 thoughtful pages are sufficient for Honors admission.

• Your goal is to demonstrate that you like to think. Write pro, con, or pro-and-con, but be persuasive. Give evidence, make illustrations. Be rhapsodic or terse or satiric or whatever, but show us an energetic mind. If you look something up, you do not need to provide documentation or a bibliography.
• No substitutions in genre or media, please. Don't send us a research paper, a painting, a poem, a PowerPoint show, a videotape, etc. instead of an essay. Those are valid ways of responding, and you may very well use them in Honors assignments while at ACU. But an essay is what we need now.
• If you have questions about these instructions, please phone the Honors office at (325) 674-2728.

Format

• At the top of your essay, give your name, email address, and phone.
• Give an original title for your essay. Example: Enthused, Bemused, Recused
• Below your essay title, indicate which topic you are discussing (for instance, put “Response to Bill Gates”).

How to submit your HC application essay

•  Preferred method: Submit your essay as part of your online HC application form. Copy and paste your essay into the text box marked “Application Essay.” When you paste it, your text will probably lose its double-spacing and may lose its paragraph indentations; if it does, please insert spaces between the paragraphs.
• To send your essay by email: Copy and paste your essay into a message for HonorsOffice@acu.edu. If you have already sent in your Honors College application, there’s no need to duplicate the application form. Just send the essay with a note that your application is already in.
•  By fax: (325) 674-6851, attention ACU Honors College.
•  By mail: Honors College, ACU Box 29142, Abilene TX 79699-9142